Peshawar: At least 126 people were killed and 122 injured on Tuesday in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani high school, a provincial official said.
"It may rise," said Bahramand Khan, director of information for the Chief Minister's Secretariat. He said more than 100 of the dead were school children.
Official sources said that so far 124 students, one female teacher and one army personnel were killed in the attack. At least 122 others have been injured.
A group of 8-10 suicide attackers wearing paramilitary Frontier Corps uniforms entered Army Public School on Warsak Road and started indiscriminate firing, killing more than 100 people, including 84 students, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Pervez Khattak told reporters.
Reuters said three big explosions were heard from inside the school building raising fears of further casualties. Troops surrounded the building and an operation was under way to rescue the remaining children.
A spokesman for a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said the gunmen had been ordered to shoot older students at the school in the city of Peshawar.
TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani told AFP there were six attackers. "They include target killers and suicide attackers. They have been ordered to shoot the older students but not the children," he said.
"It's a revenge attack for the army offensive in North Waziristan," he said, referring to an anti-Taliban military offensive that began in June.
One student inside the school at the time of the attack told a private television channel One student inside the school at the time of the attack told a private television channel: "We were in the examination hall when all of sudden firing started and our teachers told us to
silently lay on the floor. We remained on the floor for an hour. There was a lot of gunfire.
"We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers," said Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver.
Witnesses told Duniya TV channel that the gunmen were dressed in army fatigues. A boy dressed in a school uniform told the same channel that he saw his friends lying on the ground. Another boy said his teachers rushed him and his friends out of the school after hearing gunshots.
TV channels showed a Pakistan army helicopter hovering over the school as an armoured vehicle stood outside with armed soldiers roamed outside.
The attack comes as the Pakistani military wages a major offensive against Taliban and other militants in the tribal area of North Waziristan
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the militant attack saying, "Those behind the attack will not be spared."
Mushtaq Ghani, provincial information minister, said the militants entered through a graveyard which is adjacent to the school. The school is close to Saint Mary High School located at the start of Warsak Road which was also under threat for last couple of days.
A student who identified himself as Shuja told Samaa TV that they were taking examination when firing started. They were told by the teacher to lie down on the floor. He said they remained on floor for about one hour when army soldiers came and told them to go out.
Several students escaped through the back gate. One of students who escaped told Dunya TV that fourth period was in progress when they heard firing.
"First we didn't know what has happened. But late an army officer told us to escape through back gate," he said.
